


Late Night Cocoa

by JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Mother-son talk, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 15:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21358255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle/pseuds/JustLookFrightenedAndScuttle
Summary: Bitty and Suzanne talk after the holiday party
Relationships: Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann
Comments: 20
Kudos: 243





	Late Night Cocoa

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after [Check Please Episode 04.16](http://checkpleasecomic.com/comic/4-16-01)

Bitty stretched to put the last glass on the top shelf.

“All done, Mama,” he said, folding his dish towel. “At least you can sleep in tomorrow.”

“Not like when you were a little boy and would be up before the sun to see if Santa came,” Suzanne said, pulling two mugs from the cabinet. “Jack went to bed already?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bitty said. “His flight’s at eight, so we’ll need to leave here by a little after five to get him to the airport on time.”

“I was going to make some cocoa, but maybe you should just get to bed yourself,” Suzanne said. “You’ve only got a few hours before you have to be up to drive him.”

“Cocoa’s good,” Bitty said, getting out the milk. “I can sleep in the afternoon, after church and breakfast. Since we had all the family over today.”

Suzanne took a seat at the kitchen table while Bitty stirred water, cocoa powder and sugar in a saucepan.

“Y’know, none of the boys on the team ever had real cocoa until I got to Samwell?” Bitty said. “They always used the mix. Some of them still do if I’m not around to make it for them.”

“Some of them?” Suzanne asked.

“Dex makes it like this now,” Bitty said. “Especially if Nursey wants some. And Chowder, of course. Hard to believe they’ll be seniors next year. And I won’t be around to see it.”

“Life does go fast,” Suzanne said. “And it only picks up speed the older you get.”

“Gee, thanks for the warning,” Bitty said, adding the milk to the pan.

“No, I mean it’s like waiting for Christmas,” Suzanne said. “When you’re young, you’re always in such a hurry for the next big thing to happen, just like you can’t wait for a decent hour to open your Christmas presents. Then you get old like your daddy and me, and Christmas comes so fast you never have enough time to get ready, and you realize there was no need to be in such a hurry when you were younger.”

Bitty poured the cocoa into mugs and brought them to the table.

“Do you wish you slowed things down when you were my age?” he asked, sitting next to her. “Instead of getting married right after college and then having me?”

Suzanne smiled fondly at him. “I can’t say I wish I’d done anything differently, because then things might have turned out different,” she said. “And I can’t imagine not having you. But maybe I wish I’d enjoyed it more at the time, instead of always looking forward.”

Bitty wrinkled his face. “You think I’m looking forward too much?”

“I didn’t say that,” Suzanne said. “Besides, your life is so much different than mine at your age.”

Bitty thought for a moment.

“Not really,” he said. “You went to college and fell in love with a handsome athlete, right?”

“Well, yes,” Suzanne said. “And after we graduated, we got married and moved back to the same town I grew up in — which was less than an hour from the town your daddy grew up in — and we more or less did what our parents did. We got jobs and worked hard and had you, and we never really explored much of anything else. Now, I’m not saying Jack doesn’t work hard —”

Bitty snorted at that “-- but it’s not really the same thing. And I know you’re not coming back here to live, and I don’t know what kind of job you’ll have.”

“Me neither,” Bitty said. “Jack and I were talking about that today.”

“When you snuck off during the party?”

“Well, yes,” Bitty said. “We just needed a break. But we were talking about the future. Like, The Future, with capital letters. And I think we’re on the same page.”

“And what page is that?”

“We-ell, I told him long engagements are okay?”

Suzanne smiled, but didn’t look surprised. “That’s fine,” she said. “No need to rush to get married. Enjoy what you have.”

“We’re not really engaged yet,” Bitty said.

“Maybe you’re not planning a wedding yet,” Suzanne said, “and no one has formally proposed. But it’s pretty clear you’re both headed down the same road, and I’m not thinking there’s going to be any detours.”

“He did say I have to finish my thesis first,” Bitty said. “But I can work on it next week, when he’s gone.”

Suzanne got up and carried the mugs to the sink.

“I’ll wash those in the morning,” she said. “Get to bed. And make sure to wake your daddy and me before you go. There’ll be something for Jack under the tree.”

**Author's Note:**

> The cocoa Bitty makes is similar to [this](https://www.momables.com/how-to-make-homemade-hot-cocoa/).
> 
> Come say hi on [Tumblr](http://justlookfrightened.tumblr.com)!


End file.
